Fabric take-up and tension means for circular knitting machines



Sept. 10, 1946 R. H. CARHART 2,407,397

I FABRIC TAKE-UP AND TENSION MEANS FOR CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES IFiled Jan. 21, 1944 1 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 sepfl 1o, 194s.

R. H. CARHART 2,407,397 FABRIC TAKE-UP AND TENSION MEANS FOR CIRCULARKNITTING MAOHINES FnQd Jan. 2'1, 1944 s Shuts-Sheet; 2 u

I w I .S ept;.10,1946. RH, CARHART v 2,407,397

FABRIC TAKE-UP AND-TENSION IEANS FOR CIRCULAR KNITTiNG MACHINES mm Jan.21, 1944 a Sheets-Sheet :s

Patented Sept. 10, 1945 FABRIC TAKE-UP AND TENSION MEANS. FOR- CIRCULARvKNITTING MACHINES Raymond H. Carhart, Philadelphia, Pa., assignor to H.Brinton 00., Frankford, Philadelphia, Pa, a. corporation of PennsylvaniaApplication January 21, 1944, SerialNo. 519.174

' 4 Claims. (01. {is-149).-

1 My invention relates to combined fabric takeup and tension means forcircular knitting machines, the sam being directed mainly to knittingmachines of the type having astationary needle cylinder and a rotary camring, but not necessarily limitedto that type, and. it is an object ofthe invention to provide means of the character indicated, which shallbe simple and inexpensivein construction, positive in operation, and notliable to get out of order. 7 Another obj ct is to provide in one unit afabric take-up, a tension control, and a fabric reel, all locatedunderneath the machine so as to require'no additional floor space. andwhere at the same time it is readily accessible.

Various devices have been proposed. for main-' taining a fabric undertension while being knitted, and for winding or otherwise collecting thefabric during the-knitting operation. Thus it has been. proposed. toprovide, in circular knitting machines of; the stationary needlecylinder type, take-up tension rollers below the cylinder in combinationwith a reel located off to one side of the machine. An important.objection to this is the excessive floor spac required. Another familiarexpedient is to provide such rollers close to the bottom of the needlecylinder, the cloth being permitted to accumulate beneath the machine,either in a basket or the like, or directly on the floor, and. being cutoff and removed at suitabl intervals. This is quite unsuitable for widefabric such as knitted on. body machines, though used for narrowfabrics; such as stringwork hosiery. Other expedients have beenproposed, but are open to various objections, one of the principalobjections to many such devices being. that the machine must be stoppedwhenever fabric is removed therefrom. Another object of my inventiontherefore is to provide simple and easily operated means for removal ofeither a full wound roll of cloth or a partially filled roll.

Another object of my invention is to provide combined fabric tensioningand reeling means directly underneath the needle cylinder of acircularknitting machine, so constructed and arranged that the maohinecan knitcontinuously and that a filled or partly filled roll of cloth can beremoved without stopping the machine.

.Another object of the invention, is to maintain a'close control on thetension of the cloth being knitted. I

Anotherobject of the inventionis to wind the cloth on a roll in suchmanner as to make an exceptionally uniform mass of cloth, evenly laidandwith square ends, the shape of such ajroll being due largely to theclosely controlled ten sion. and to the. use. of effective means forholding. the. tubular fabric in well-spread-out position as itapproaches the cloth r011;

Another object is toprovide reeling means such that theroll of fabricwill automatically remove itself. from the machine. when the roll ofcloth reaches a predetermined diameter.

Still. anotherv object is to provide reeling means so constructed andarranged that the periphery of the roll of cloth approaches the floor asthe roll grows larger, wherebythe roll becomes easier to handle as itincreases in size and weight, since length of the. lifting and loweringmovements necessary to remove it from the machine and toplace it onthefloor or other support de creases, with increasing size of the clothr-oll.

Referring to the. drawings, which are made a part of this applicationand in which similar reference characters indicate similar parts:

Fig. 1, is a perspective of the lower portion of a circular knittingmachine having my improved take-up applied thereto,

Fig. 2, a side elevation of from the right in Fig. 1,

Fig. 3, a rear elevation of the take-up, parts omitted,

Fig. 4, a detail view, showing on a larger scale certain parts alsoshown in Fig. 2,

Fig. 5, a section on line 5-5 of Fig. 2, showing gearing forming part ofthe invention,

Fig. 6, a section on line 6-6 of Fig. 4,

Fig. 7, a detail illustrating the relative positions of eccentrics atopposite sides of the machine for driving, the take-up, and I Fig. 8, asection on line 8-3 of Fig. 3.

. In the drawings, reference character In indicates generally thebase-plate of a circular knitting machine in which there is knitted afabric indicated at H, which is wound on a fabric roll l2 to form awound mass 13.

The. roll i2 is provided at its ends with gudgeons. l4 that are adaptedto travel along inclined flanges 15, projecting inwardly from brackets16 forming parts of, or secured to, the. main frame to. Slots, in the;brackets can, of course, 'be substituted for the flanges l5, ifpreferred. It will be evident that the roll of cloth can easily beliftedout ofthe machine when desired and an empty fabric r011 l2 can bemoved down along flanges If! to the lowermost position, indicated indotted lines in Fig. 8, to be filled in the subsequent operation of themachine. When the roll o cloth becomes of suflicient size so that thethe take-up, viewed with gudgeons ride over the ends of the flanges |5,IS, the entire wound mass will automatically roll out on the floor andcan then be separated from the cloth remaining in the machine andreplaced by an empty fabric roll.

The cloth is guided in it path from the needles to the take-up roll bymeans of cloth guides, such as the pairs of guide rollers at l1 and 20.A spacer I8 is shown as connecting the brackets l6, but it has noguiding function,

For driving the fabric roll I provide means including a friction roller2| against which the fabric roll bears as shown in Fig. 2, thisrollerbeing driven from a shaft 22, which may be the main shaft of themachine, by means of an eccentric 23, a connecting rod formed in twoparts 24 and 25, and a pawl and ratchet mechanism operated by said rod.The two parts of the connecting rod are yieldingly connected by meansincluding abutments 26 and 21. clamped to the upper member 24 by screws29, 29, said abutments being slidable on the lower member 25, a collar28 fixed to the lower rod member 25, and a spring 30 on said memberbetween the abutment 21 and collar 28. Preferably the abutment 26 isfixed in place, as by pinning it to rod section 24, whereas the abutment21 is adjustable up and down on said rod section, the screw 29 acting asa set screw, or a rivet being substituted for it.

It will be evident that when the rod section 24 moves downward theabutment 26 will move without any effect on the rod member 25 untilabutment 26 strikes collar 28, after which the rod member and partsoperated thereby will be actuated positively, whereas on the returnstroke the upper member moves positively with the eccentric but onlylifts the lower member yieldingly through the spring 30 after the springhas been compressed sufficiently fo the purpose. Thus a full stroke ofthe pawl may rotate the fabric roll through only a small arc, or evennot at all, depending on the tension of the forming fabric and theposition of the abutment 27 with reference to the spring 30.

The pawl and ratchet mechanism at the side of the machine shown in Fig.2 comprises an oscillatory lever 3| carrying a pawl 32 forced by aspring 33 toward a ratchet 34, and a holding pawl 35 serves to hold theratchet against reverse movement. Suitable means for idling the pawls isprovided, being here shown as including a disk 36 at each side of themachine, said disks being suitably notched to expose parts of theratchets for engagement by the pawls 32 and 35 when the take-up is tooperate, but arranged to lift both pawls out of active position atdesired times, as when it is necessary to turn the roller 2| backwardmanually to release the tension on the cloth; e. g., when the cloth isfirst put on the machine, or for convenience in replacing the cloth onthe needles after a press-on. For this purpose the disks 36 are rotatedmanually by means of bars 31 having hand grips at a convenient heightand extending down through guides 38 on the frame to their pivotalconnection with the disks 36. The bars have pins 37" adapted to entereither of a pair of holes in the adjacent side member l6, as best shownin Figure 1, showing the position of the parts when a pin 37" has beenentered in the lower one of two such holes. The roller 2| is coveredwith emery to cause it to grip the cloth on the fabric roll, and so isanother roller 46 underneath which the cloth passes prior to itsengagement by the fabric roll 2|, 1. e., both rollers 2| and are driverollers for taking up and tensioning the cloth. The roller 40 aids intensioning the fabric evenly and firmly and in guiding the same to thefabric roll. Roller 40 is driven in constant relation with roller 2| bymeans of meshing gears 4|, 42, on the respective rollers.

' In order to maintain a close control on the fabric it is desirable toprovide for steppin the fabric roll around between impulses receivedfrom that pawl and ratchet means which is best shown in Fig. 2, andtherefore I have provided an additional pawling means at the other endof the fabric roll, as shown in Figs. 1, 3 and 7, this including anotherpawling means having a pawl 32 on a lever 35 operated by links 24, 25'from an eccentric 23' which is set at an angle of from the first-namedeccentric, so as to rotate the fabric roll stepwise While the pawl 32 isbeing moved down preparatory to re-engagement with the ratchet. Theparts for the second operating means (best shown in Fig. 1) areotherwise identical with those of the first operating means exsent thatthe pawls appear in reverse position as seen in said figure, beingoperated by a shaft 22' that is driven by gear connections to the camring, or in some other convenient manner, and therefore no further ormore specific description is deemed necessary.

In the enlarged View of Fig. 8, cloth spreaders t5 and 46 are shown asarranged immediately above the respective pairs of guide rollers l1 and28. The use of such spreaders is not new in itself, but by using twospreaders in succession above each of two pairs of guide rollers it isfound that the roll of cloth is caused to be shaped very accurately,with square shoulders and flat ends, whereby the roll retains its shape,and whereby any wrinkles and the like are avoided in the cloth on theroll. The spreaders are shown as being made of wood, but metallicspreaders may be used. They may also be omitted, as in Fig. 2, but suchomission is undesirable.

It will be evident that the roll of fabric may ride over the ends of theguides |5, |5 when the roll reaches a predetermined diameter, allwithout danger of injury to the cloth or of changing the shape of theroll detrimentally, since the periphery of the roll is close to thefloor, and. in fact is closer to the floor when the roll is full than 0at the beginning of the operation or at any intermediate stage in thewinding. It is easy also to remove the fabric roll from the machine atany stage of the winding, since there is nothing to uncouple or to bedismounted or disengaged, and nothing to interfere with removal of theroll. Although the wound mass of cloth does not project to anyconsiderable extent beyond the machine frame even when the cloth roll isfull and about to roll ofi the tracks l5, it can obviously be reachedeasily by men standing near the machine for the purpose of lifting theroll out of the machine.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that many changes may bemade in the devices herein 0 disclosed, all without departing from thespirit of the invention; and therefore I do not limit myself to what isshown in the drawings and described in the specification, but only asindicated in the appended claims.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim is:

1. In a knitting machine, a take-up for the forming fabric comprising afabric roll, a roller in frictional engagement with said fabric r011,pawl and ratchet means at each end of said fabric roll for driving saidroller, the driving pawl of .each of said means being constructed andarranged to act on said roller while the other driving pawl is makingits return stroke.

2. A circular knitting machine comprising a table, legs supporting thetable, brackets at 09- posite sides of the table and each locatedbetween a pair of legs, inclined tracks on said brackets extendingupward and forward to the respective front legs of said pairs, a driveroller adjacent the lower ends of said tracks for driving a cloth rolllocated on said tracks, the relation of such parts being such that theperiphery of the cloth wound on the cloth roll approaches the floor asthe roll increases in size.

3. In a circular knitting machine having a stationary needle cylinder,the combination of inclined tracks at opposite sides of the machine,

6 i said tracks leading upward and towardv one side of the machine, afabric roll underneath the needle cylinder and supported by said tracks,and means for driving the fabric roll in timed relation with theoperation of the machine, said tracks being constructed and arranged sothat the fabric mass will roll oif the tracks and onto the machinesupporting floor when the mass reachesa predetermined size, and thedriving means being so arranged and constructed with respect tothe rolland the tracks that the periphery of said mass approaches closer to thefloor as the mass approaches such predetermined size. Y 4. A device asin claim 1, including independent manually-operable means forinactivating either or both of said pawls.

RAYMOND H. CARHART.

